A Bit Hot.

Well the hot season, truly, really is here. I mustn’t complain too much; as like I said earlier, we JUST got back from 19 days of travelling w/ my folks, of which 17 of those days we stayed in air-conditioned hotel rooms in which we could escape to during the hottest part of the day. We’ve been told April is the hottest month in Cambodia, and I guess we should be thankful that we were out during the majority of it. Nevertheless we were reminded last night after we arrived from our 6 hour bus ride from Phnom Penh that we are most definitely NO LONGER staying in air-conditioned rooms – as we got ready for bed and positioned each of our own fans on ourselves (yes, we broke down and bought a second fan; each volunteer should be entitled to their own fan, right?) and crawled into bed. (Yes, I know; I truly am thankful that we have electricity. some volunteers don’t.)

Anyhow.

I haven’t written much lately for a few reasons. 1. it’s a bit hot. Like I said, the motivation to get myself to turn on the laptop, which only blows hot air out of its left side while it’s on¬ -- has been a bit of a deterrent. 2. Not too much has been jumping out at me lately…and some of the things that HaVe jumped out at me are of somewhat disappointing nature: i.e. a) learning firsthand about corruption in our community and how it affects our friends and the everyday people of this society---and it’s just not fair and probably won’t be fair for these people for a long time (nonetheless it doesn’t bother them too much because they never dreamed that they’d be enjoying the peace that they have right now) b) lack of motivation of students (and teachers) to study lately [can you really blame them in this heat?] c) the fact that the majority of the students at the high-school failed their semester exams (did I mention there are approx 2500 students grade nine & above?) d) some days, our efforts feel a bit hopeless. 3. I needed some time away with our last few outings to clear my mind and refresh my motivation and attitude as to why we are truly here – and convince myself that hopefully yes, we are helping in some way – even if it’s very minor.

But overall, the number one reason for not writing lately is that it’s just too hot to do anything! The motivation to really do anything from 11am-3pm is really not there. Oh well… we’re moving into the rainy season soon; so that should help some. I can’t imagine what the heat would’ve been like inside had we stayed in the old wooden house, on the 2nd floor… as beck in Oct at the beginning of the cool season the inside temp would still get to 97 during the hot part of the day. yikes.

Let me blatantly say, I am truly jealous of the fact that my dad’s site during the peace corps, was on a southern island of the Philippines, which had a backdrop of mountains inland and their town was right on the ocean. He told me that, pretty much they could go swimming at the beach any day they wanted to. Just not fair. Oooh! It’s 3:37, and the temp is down to 92 inside!